Thursday 17 April 2008, Mangonui

Magnets worked a treat to get gearbox out of gear. We then fired her up and
still no forward or astern. Rob took oil pump off and turned it around. We
fired her up again and gears worked. So we are back in business.

Zinkwazi is filthy – with all the parts being all over the boat and
everything being greasy. So we clean up. Final fix took about thirty minutes
and clean-up took about two and a half hours. Then ashore for diesel and
water and back to boat to load 40L of diesel and 60l of water. And again –
so we are loaded up with water and diesel.

Rob and I are so pleased with this turn of events that we declare Friday a
rest day and retire to the pub for a drink. And we buy a T-shirt (we think
that not having bought a T-shirt in Mangonui is the cause of our problems)
and we only have one drink. Because the bottle shop is next door and we buy
beer which we take along to the ramp and drink with the guys at the ramp.

Beer is bad! Because after three beers I can’t see straight. We are still
ashore so I don’t have any of my cooking stuff, nevertheless I am cooking
tea. We are having baked potatoes, roast chicken pieces (wrapped in bacon)
and roasted mushrooms. We will sleep late and chill tomorrow then on
Saturday we head down to the Bay of Islands (sadly missing Whangaroa). We
have a very complicated plan to get Rob’s car (which we’ll leave in
Mangonui) so I can drive to Auckland and pick up a mate in Pahia to assist
Rob in getting boat back to Auckland. I am very sorry to be missing the last
legs – but Waikato want me back and I did promise to be back at work on the
21st. But it is a 4-day week – do you really want me back Waikato?